The next couple days went by with side glances, complements, and an unexpected rise in popularity. All around school, people have been questioning me on where I got my hair done, and how much it cost. I would usually just feed them whatever popped into my mind. I was getting complements left and right on my new look. And Jessica was still lost for words, not knowing how to put me down. I strangely got a lot more confident with everything that has been going on. There were people who tried to criticize me, but I was able to simply ignore them. Maybe the change was just what I needed.

Friday came with me snuggled up on a couch, sipping on my steaming camomile tea, and Patrick Swayze dancing on the T.V screen. Dirty Dancing seemed perfect to get me into an up beat mood for tonight.

As the end of the movie was playing out, I heard a rapid knocking at the door. I walked to the door with a beat in my step, dancing along to (I've had) the Time of my Life. I opened the door to Jennifer grinning, carrying two beautiful dresses. One, a deep ocean blue, and another, a royal purple.

"They're gorgeous! How much were they?" I said holding up the blue one. It was a light fabric that cut off a little below the knee. It had a split that ran a third up the thigh, which made it tight but movable, a slight V neck, and a steeper V in the back. It had a thin, cloth, black belt, and faded into black at the bottom.

"I got them half off! What are the chances! It cost me about 100 all together. I'll be expecting payment from you, by the way." I gave her back the blue one and took the purple. The dress had a thicker cloth that layered onto each other on the bottom half, ranging in different shades, from a rich purple, to a gentle lavender. It had a lavender belt matching a short, leather, lavender jacket. The top half was a dark, deep purple. And at the belt, the bottom of the dress puffed out, cutting the dress rim just above the knee's.

"So what do you think?" Jennifer asked me after I finished examining the dresses.

"They're both perfect. I didn't know you were going all out on this party."

"I want to make our victory as sweet as possible."

"Well you're confident."

"Who wouldn't be with these dresses?" She said holding up the blue dress.

"What time does the party start again?"

"Seven, but I suspect that we'll be done getting ready by eight. That only gives us about two hours to get ready."

"Only?"

"This could take a while." She justified. I let out a small laugh.

"Well, I'm going to take a quick shower."

"And I'll search the web for cute ways to do our hair."

When I got out of the shower fifteen minutes later, I saw that Jennifer was already in the blue dress. It worked good with her black hair, and tan skin. I got in my dress, and began helping her decide on how we would do our hair. We ended up choosing a elaborate bun, that kind of made her hair look like a slick, black sea shell, perfect with her ocean dress. My hair ended up kind of looking like a flowery Elsa braid. Jennifer had done my hair in a side French braid, while making flowers out of my hair on the side of the braid.

Jennifer was right about us taking a long time. It was 7:40 when we finished our hair. We did our make-up according to the shades of our dress, and it was then, when we finished, that I realized just how gorgeous we looked. It felt like we had transformed from ugly ducklings to swans, which highly boosted my confidence.

We drove up to Jessica's house, squeezing in a parking spot on a car lined street. I pushed open the rusty door of the passenger seat to Jennifer's small, old, pale green Buggy. Jennifer pushed open her jammed door, while cursing the car under her breath. I was standing by the curb, when Jennifer placed her hand on my shoulder.

"You ready to go and prove Jessica wrong?" She said to me with a smile.

"Ready as I'll every be." I took in a breath as we walked towards the front door. This was an important night, that would determine where I would be for the rest of high school. It would determine if I got Mark. I just needed to win the bet, and make him fall for me. This was gonna be tough.

We walked through crowded rooms of reckless teenagers. The music was blasting, making it almost impossible to have a conversation.

"So how we gonna do this?" I yelled to Jennifer over the music.

"What?" She yelled back.

"I said, how are we gonna do this?" I saw sudden realization wash over Jennifer's face.

"Ohh, you want some punch. Okay, I'll go get you some."

"Wait - " but she left before I could stop her. I simply waved the matter away. I moved into the next room which sheltered the dance floor. Moved to the less crowded section of the room and leaned against the wall. I started looking at the couple's on the dance floor. Going from person to person to person till I found Mark. He was looking as hot as ever, with a designer white shirt, and perfectly fitting dark jeans. Then I saw who he was dancing with. Jessica. She was wearing a sleek, inky black dress, highlighting her fiery red hair.

"I got your punch." I heard Jennifer to the right of me. They had turned down the music a little, so they didn't have to yell as much.

"Thanks." I said. " So, how we gonna do this? " I repeated for the last time.

"Do what?"

"Win the bet." The song that was playing began to end. Jennifer smiled at me.

"Well...first, we dance. And I know just who will be your partner." She nudged her head in the direction of Mark exiting the dance floor, and heading in our direction. I stopped myself from doing a spit take with my punch.

"You serious?"

"Dead. Come on you can do this...just ask him to dance."

"Okay."

"Oh come - wait what? Did you just say 'okay'?" She asked, surprised to hear my willingness.

"I'm gonna do it." I quickly chugged down my punch to settle down the butterfly in my stomach . That wasn't enough, so I grabbed Jennifer's from her hand, and chugged it as well. "Wish me luck." I said to the shocked Jennifer, before walking off somewhat with confidence.

First, I checked to make sure that Jessica was out of range. Then, with tight stomach, I walked up to Mark.

"Hey, Mark."

"Oh, hi Skyler." He said turning his head towards me. Die Young by Kesha started playing.

"Wanna dance?" Every inch of my body began to tingle with those words . He replied with smile and held out his hand. I grabbed it holding my breath. We walked into the center of the the floor. He began to dance, while I just started to kind of sway paralyzed. I looked to the side of the room towards Jennifer who had palmed her face, due to my dancing. Mark let out a small laugh.

"Let me help you." He gingerly grabbed me by the waist, guiding me through the dance. With this, I felt a wave of relief flood over my body, like everything was okay. I let myself go with the music. "Now you're getting it." He said as my dancing improved.

"Well I have a good teacher." I said smoothly . He laughed.

"By the way, I heard about yours and Jessica's little bet." I blushed at these words.

"Ya? How do you feel about it?" I said trying my hardest not to let my confidence slide.

"Well it really just made me mad with Jessica, with her thinking she could do that to me. But maybe I'll let this deal play out a little more. I might like the outcomes." He flashed me a white toothed smile. I went hot in the face, I didn't even want to picture how red I must have been.

The song began to end. He offered me his hand, and I accepted it with a small smile. He led me off the dance floor, and to the punch bowl. He scooped up a cup for both of us and handed one to me.

"I like what you did with your hair. Really took everyone by surprise."

"Oh, thanks. I thought I needed to try something...different. "

"Different is certainly the right word. I've never seen anyone do anything like it."

"Well I was a little uncertain at first. Thought it would be a little too weird."

"Weird, no. Strange, yes. But still, I think it looks beautiful." He said twirling the end of my braid around his finger. He certainly wasn't afraid to make a move. My heart was beating so hard, I thought it might break open my chest. With the nerves I had, I was surprised that I had been able to keep my cool for this long.

I finally replied to him with a small smile, then took a good drink of my punch to help calm myself.

Mark broke the silence. "Well see you later." He said flashing me one last white smile. He turned away, making his way through the crowded party. Meanwhile, Jennifer joined me, with a hanging jaw.

"I can't believe that just happened." She said to me. I suddenly began to realize everything that just happened. I realized that Mark might actually like me! I instantly began to solidify everything that had just happened, to memory. As I went over the memory, all the nerves flooded back.

"I can't believe I just did that. I can't believe I just did that, I can't believe I just did that!" I repeated to myself , getting louder with each one. I gulped down the rest of my drink, that sufficed as my nerve calmer for the night.

"I wouldn't drink so much of that it I were you. It's probably been spiked several times now."

"You're probably right." I said, pushing my punch farther away from me.

"Well, ready to get this party started?" Jennifer said in a cheery mood.

"Depends, what does that involve?"

"All I can say is it's going to get pretty crazy. Come on let's go dance." The second her back turned to me, I chugged down the rest of my drink, regardless of her warning.

She grabbed my hand. "Come on." She said dragging me to the dance floor. We got into the dancing crowd together.

"What about getting partners?"

"We don't need partners!" Jennifer scoffed. "We got each other!"

"Wow. That sounds cheesy."

"Cheesy but true." I chuckled at her response. Jennifer began to dance to the upbeat tune. I gave a small sigh, and then joined her.
Jennifer was getting into it, while my dancing was kinda weak. "You can do better than that, Sky." I began to get into it like her, and I found myself getting really into it. It felt so good letting go, I ended up blocking out the world, and just danced.

"Wow, Sky, you got some moves." Jennifer said to me in a slightly surprised voice. I suddenly realized I was moving in ways I didn't know I could. A few of the people around us began to watch me.

"I should stop." I said feeling red under the spotlight.

"No, keep going. You're doing great! Where did you learn to dance like this?"

"No idea."

In my mind, I blocked out everyone in the room. I had to keep this up. How else were we going to win this bet. The song began to end, and I finished off with jumping up into a 360, and landing into the splits on the last note. At first, I was deaf to my surroundings, frozen, in thought of what I just did. The sound of cheers flooded into my ears. The sudden realization that almost everyone had been watching me, poured over me. Around the room, everyone was clapping and a few people chanted, "Go Skyler". Some people from other rooms were staggering in, to see what the cheering was about.

Jennifer helped me up from the strangely painless, splits. The cheers began to die down, and Jennifer and I began to walk to the side of the room. People left and right began to give me high fives and pats on the back, as we passed them.

We got out of the main crowd, and Jennifer instantly began talking.

"How did you do that!? Why didn't you tell me you could do that!? And may I just say, that was awesome!" I stayed silent, not knowing how to reply to her. "Well?" She said accusingly.

"I don't know how I did it. I just...did." I justified.

"You serious?"

"Yes! I don't really know how to do those things I just did." Jennifer looked a little clueless before catching on to what I said.

"But -"

"Hey, Skyler," Mark interrupted. "I liked your sweet moves up there. How did you learn to dance like that?" Jennifer looked slightly annoyed at the interruption.

"Oh, here and there." I said unable to think of anything better. Jennifer stifled a small laugh, due to my lame remark, but was drawn away by a ring on her phone.

"Well, if you're that good of a dancer, maybe you should've been teaching me." I released a small laugh. "You've got a cute laugh." Mark said with a smile. A small tingle ran down my back at the sight of his gleaming teeth, and the small dimples engraved in his cheeks.

"Well you've got a cute smile." I said instinctively. A tad of heat blossomed in my cheeks. The size of his smile increased. Butterflies began to bounce off the walls of my stomach. I let my eyes wander the floor and nibbled at my bottom lip, unsure what to do in the sudden silence.

"Hey, Sky," I heard Jennifer's voice. My eyes were lifted from the floor, only to catch Mark's eyes pinned on my lips. His eyes came up and met mine before quickly darting away. "Come look at this." Jennifer finished. Her eyes glued to her phone screen.

"I'll be right back." I left Mark and came up to Jennifer.

Jennifer showed me her phone she had been staring so intently at. I showed a video with me dancing plastered on the front cover. "Someone took a video of me?"

"Not someone almost everyone! This is great! It means we're on the right track." This interested me, but not for long. My mind shot back to Mark waiting for me.

"Okay, great, but gotta go." I said to her with my eyes locked in Mark standing alone. I set off towards Mark. When he noticed my presence, he turned to me, and cleared his throat.

"So, anyway," He said running his fingers through his floppy black hair. "Do you wanna come dance? Maybe you could give me a lesson or two." He smiled.

"Sure." I grabbed his hand as he lead me to the dance floor.

We danced the first song, and had such a good time that we danced the next two as well.

"Wow you really like to dance hard." He laughed as we moved away from the crowd of couples.

"Well that's what happens when I'm having a good time."

"You must be quite the partier, if you dance like that."

"This is actually the first party I have been to in a while."

"Really? You should get out more, because you're awesome to be around. I wish Jessica would be more like you are. She doesn't like to dance much."

"Well that sounds boring." He laughed at my comment.

"Ya sometimes, but she's still a great girlfriend." My heart chocked up at these words. For a second, I forgot that they were still dating. I tried to brush off the sudden slump I was in, and tried to focus on the moment.

Mark poured us two cups of punch. It wasn't until now that I realized how dry my mouth felt.

"Here." He handed me the cup , and I took it gratefully. I gulped down my drink and refilled it. "Feeling a little dehydrated?" He smirked at the way I had just chugged my drink.

"Hey, that was a lot of dancing." I justified.

"True." He gave an understanding nod. I drained my second cup, and hit it down on the table noisily.

"Wow! That's some good punch." I said feeling refreshed. "Now, I'm ready to go out and dance again, how about you?" I started towards the jumbled crowd, but misplaced my foot, stumbling forward. Mark quickly grabbed me by the waist.

"I think you've had a little too much punch. Maybe you should sit down -"

"Mark!" The two of us turned our heads to see Jessica. She was staring at Mark's hands on my waist with a look of surprised, confused, disgust. "What are you doing with her." She whined with shock. My insides giggled with pleasure, but stopped when Mark drew his hands away, and replied nervously saying, "Um, nothing."

I turned and gave him a look of betrayal. I suddenly felt as vulnerable as a wounded doe. For a moment, in my mind, I thought he might have liked me, but that might have just been my imagination. Not sure what to do, I thought it would be best if I just left. I walked forward, heading to get past Jessica. What I didn't notice was Jessica's foot stuck out at the last second. As I was falling forward, in pure instinct, my right foot swung behind me, making me do a 180° turn. It not only flipped me right side up, but also nailed my heel hard into Jessica's nose, causing her to fly back a couple feet from her original position.

She screamed out in pain. Mark slid to her side. She had her hand covering her bulging bloody nose. Tears stained her cheeks as she cried out in pain. Mark moved her hand to examine the nose.

"It's broken." Mark confirmed to the now large crowd around the incident
"Broken?! More like shattered!" Bellowed Jessica, angrily ripping the paper towels from a helping hand. She put a hand full of paper towels up to her nose, but they were almost useless against the bleeding. "YOU DID THIS!" Jessica shouted at me through tears of pain.

Suddenly, all the eyes in the room swung from Jessica to me. My whole body was shaking with guilt and panic. My throat stung from holding back tears. My stomach was knotted, and I was paralyzed under everyone's eyes. Without any other option, I sprinted out of the room, shoving myself a path through the thick crowd.

I rushed out of the front door, running across the street to the park on the other side. I ran deep into the tree covered park. A small, cool, crisp wind, that served as the remains of winter, iced my nose, and now tear stained, cheeks. I reached the middle of the park, and sat on one of the four benches that enclosed a giant three layered fountain. There was a circle of pale gray cement that spread out in four paths that disappeared into the mystery of the trees, all placed in between the gaps of the four benches. The light of the crescent moon twinkled in the smooth waterfalls of the fountain.

I was still slightly shaking from the incident that happened at the party. I tried to calm myself, and was successful, with taking in a deep breath and resting my head on the backboard of the bench. I closed my eyes, and let the pale light of the moon wash over me.

I sat there in peace and quiet, listening to the trickle of the falling water, when suddenly I heard the rustling of some leaves from a near by bush. I flipped my head around to survey the area. Nothing. My heart beat quickened slightly. It was probably just an animal, I reassured myself. I took in a deep breath, closed my eyes, resting my head on the back board, and tried to wipe away any cynical feeling I had.

I sat there for a few moments more, until being disrupted by a sudden skittering on the grass behind me. I flipped my head around once more, with my heart rate climbing by the second. I could feel invisible eyes tearing into me.

"Who - who's there?" I asked the darkness, trembling. There was no reply. I sat up from the bench, facing my back to the fountain, allowing me to keep my eyes perched on the sinister darkness underneath the trees. A black flash whipped through my peripheral vision. I spun around to see nothing, but now knowing I wasn't alone. I began to back up, shaking violently. There was sudden movement in front of me. A tall black figure emerged from behind a thick tree trunk. It had bony, pale hands, with a skull mask of a strange creature. Clad in midnight black armor, it bore a large double edged axe that was made from sharpened bone. It stood like a bear on its hind legs, and looked like seven foot skeleton clad in misshapen armor. Its chilling, pale, violet eyes sent chills dancing coldly on my spine.

It began to creep towards me, slowly raising its axe. My knees suddenly went weak as I began to step backwards. I wanted to scream, but was too paralyzed to do so. It's pace began to quicken into a run, closing the space between us. It let out a shrill screech as a battle cry, as it came at me. At first I stumbled back, but turned into a fast sprint away from the creature that chased me.

Sprinting through the park, moving as fast as my legs would carry me, I reached the tree lined edge of the park. I could see the glow from the street lamps not far from me. Looking behind, I realized that whatever had been chasing me was gone. I stopped for a second, panting, when suddenly the creature dropped from the tree above me with a shriek piercing my ear drums. I fell back into the rough grass covered ground. It raises its axe, ready to stick it deep into my skull. I quickly rolled away, leaving the axe firmly in the ground in place of where my head was a second ago. Scrambling to my feet, I tried to make a run for it, but its large hand caught my shoulder, and threw me into a tree. I felt a blistering pain in my left shoulder, it was probably knocked out of its socket. Tears were blurring the image of the creature wrenching its axe from the ground, then heading for me.

It was then tackled to the ground by what looked like a...lion! The two creatures tumbled out of my vision. The creature that was chasing me was thrown into view, and a man emerged into view from the direction it was thrown. The lion gone.

The man looked about eighteen. He had thick, disheveled, brown, gold entwined hair, with one strip of white on the right side. The strong sharp features he had completed his thick dark eyebrows. He was tall with a strong build. The white travel stained shirt he wore had, sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He had dark brown pants, with a black belt holding a knife, and two sheathed short sword strapped to his back. Walking calmly to the beast, in one swift movement, he took out one of his swords and stabbed it in the creatures chest. The creature let out a screech of pain, before dying off. The body lay there still for a moment, but suddenly crumbled into ash. A shadow outline was all that was left of the creature.

The man then looked at me with deep silver eyes.

"Are you hurt?" The man said with gentle, yet stern voice.

"M - my shoulder." I stuttered through the pain. He walked closer to me taking a knee beside me. He examined my left shoulder gently.

"It's dislocated." He confirmed.

"I guessed that part, as much." He looked slightly annoyed at my comment.

"I'll have to pop it back in, and I won't lie, it's going to hurt." He lowered his thick eyebrows in concentration, as he got ready to pop my shoulder into place. I shut my eyes tight, preparing for the blast of pain. He gingerly gripped my shoulder, and then with a thundering pain, the shoulder was shoved back into place. I let out a small cry of pain, and lifted my right hand gently to my injury. I was breathing in deep, hoping it would somehow diminish the pain. At least it was back in its rightful place.

"Thanks." I said attempting to ignore the pain. He didn't answer back. Instead he examined me with his eyes, as if searching for signs of the kind of person I was. I couldn't help feel a little nervous under the gaze of his intimidating eyes.

"I'm Skyler, by the way." I said.

"Theo." He responded, standing up in front of me. He offered his hand, and I took it feeling that I could trust him over the fact that he just saved my life. He helped me to my feet and I looked at the remaining ashes of the monster that tried to take my life.

"What was that thing?" I said in disgusted horror at the ash shadow.

"A griever."

"A what?"

"Griever. They're - well actually I won't get into that right now, but it will all be explained in time."

"Who exactly are you, and what was up with that lion - "

"Did I not just tell you all your questions will be answered later." His voice was calm yet held authority, and authority only called for sass.

"What's wrong with answering my questions now? I deserve some explanation after what just happened." I said in response to him rejecting my questions. He turned and looked at me with a glance of annoyance. He simply appeared to shake it off, and turn his attention down to a satchel hanging at his side. He dug a syringe like tool out of the bag.

"We have somewhere to be." He said walking a little closer to me and lifting his eyes to meet mine. For a second, I found myself caught in the whirlpools of silvery mist that were staring back at me. But I was pulled out by a slight stabbing pain in my right arm (but nothing compared to the pain in my left).

"Ow." I said in alarm to the syringe being stabbed into my arm. I looked down at the syringe in his hand. "What did you just inject into me?"

"Means of transportation." He said smoothly.

"What's tha - Wait, 'transportation' and 'we have somewhere to be'? Where do you think I'll be going with you? You can't really expect me to run off with a total stranger."

"Well, yes I expect you to come with me. Did I not already make that clear?" Well he doesn't like to repeat things twice.

"Hate to brake it to you, but the only place I'll be going is home. I'm not running off with some guy who thinks it's okay to inject random things into people's bodies." I said annoyed by the fact that he believed I would just willingly walk off with a person I knew nothing about, and especially with all this weird crap I'd experienced tonight.

"It's funny you think you have a choice." He scoffed. I was taken slightly back by this comment, and felt a tightening in my stomach as I questioned my own safety. What would he want with me? He couldn't be trying to kill me if he saved my life, plus he is fully capable to have already done it. I eyed the hilts, of the two short swords, that were peaking above Theo's broad shoulders.

"What do you want with me." I said in voice now minorly stripped of confidence. The expression shifted slightly from hard to gentle, but was almost instantly revised back.

"You will find out soon enough. Now, so you want to do this the hard way or the easy way."

"Depends, give me one good reason to go with you." I said allowing myself to be stubborn to his rudeness.

He let out a small sigh and replied, "It involves your mother."

"What?" I said in a whispered like tone. This was not what I was expecting.

"This is your only opportunity to ever be with your mother."

"I can't be with someone who's dead. My mother got sick and died when I was a baby."

"I can assure you, she is very much alive." The idea of what he was saying ran through my mind, but was dismissed from my head. How could I believe anything he said? He's just trying to lure me into a trap, for whatever reason. But how did he know I didn't have a mom? I guess he did his homework, I reassured.

"And what have you done so far that gives me a reason to trust you."

"Well, I did just save your life."

"That is true, but I just met you, and you've refused to tell me what's going on. And now you come and tell me that mother is alive, when I have been believing that she was dead all my life. It's a pretty big stretch for me to believe."

"I guess we're doing this the hard way." He mumbled to himself.

"- And like I said before, I'm not going to go wandering off with a guy I just met! And you can't trick me with your lies!"

"You finished with your ranting yet?"

I let out a small huff of anger. "Well, I'm not going with you, and there's nothing you can do about it." He granted me a look that spoke "challenge accepted". I suddenly felt a cringe of fear. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going home."

He stopped me as I was attempting to walk past him, and into the street.

"I'm sorry it had to come to this, but just know it was your own doing." My eyebrows lowered in confusion, but was put to a halt with a sharp blow in the head and the world going black.

A/N: Please remember to vote, and thanks for reading!